Hi!
Thanks for your help with new worms for GM8, in fact teleskop-express had some misinformation about Losmandy worms. New high precision worm was installed into my GM8 (steel worm is still in DEC place, propably I will replace it sooner or later) and it fits well - it also runs much smoother now in RA.
I bought Losmandy with DIY AstroEQ drive but I dumped it all except a motor and drive shaft housing- there were some bad choices with stepper motors, drivers and the mount was generally neglected when I bought it (but I bought it cheap I guess). At that time, it was guiding with 2.5" RMS and did rough spikes from time to time on both axis, even after re-lubing (240mm guider scope and ASI120).
Installed OnStep with new 400 step motors and 3:1 reduction on belt, installed High Precision worm and new EZO bearings for drive shaft and my worm blocks. On the first night after upgrade I had 0.8"RMS on PHD2 and it was really good except some RA spikes - I had both some failure on Onstep with weather control as well as my Oldham couplers are worn out and I thing they were slipping. Picture for thank you below!
I now installed new dog clutches and needed some grinding of tightening screws, that's why it's messy, sorry! - unfortunately there is very little space on Losmandy for clutches. Dog-clutches that are really tight and also run smoother that Oldhams with no strange pulsating under fingers when moved manually.?
I hope next upgrade is installing Belleville washers (but I really can't find anything suitable in EU right now). On the other hand, the drive shaft is already pushing a bit of force on worms and PHD2 didn't really complain about backlash, also measured RA and DEC movement was really close to the predicted one. Maybe a DIY-spring loading for worm blocks or DIY one-piece worm blocks from current housing (I saw it somewhere on the internet and can't find it now) would be nice.
A last short look on Pleiades and photo of my DIY drive for you.
Thanks,
Dominik
